Roc-A-Fella Records‎

Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

“808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Kanye West, released on November 24, 2008, by Roc-A-Fella Records. It was recorded during September and October 2008 at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of producers such as No I.D. and Jeff Bhasker.

Conceived in the wake of a series of distressing personal events, 808s & Heartbreak marked a major musical departure for West from his previous rap records, instead featuring a sparse, electronic sound and West singing through an Auto-Tune vocal processor. His lyrics explored themes of loss, alienated fame, and heartache, while the album's production eschewed conventional hip hop sounds in favor of a minimalist sonic palette, which included prominent use of the titular Roland TR-808 drum machine. Despite varying responses from audiences, the album received positive reviews from most critics and was named one of 2008's best records in several year-end lists.

808s & Heartbreak debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 450,145 copies in its first week. By 2013, it had sold 1.7 million copies in the United States. Four singles were released to promote the record, including the hit singles "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless".

In the years since its release, 808s & Heartbreak has been cited as a prominent influence on subsequent hip-hop, pop, and R&B, as a new wave of rappers, singers, and producers came to adopt aspects of its style and thematic content.

In 2014, Rolling Stone named it one of the 40 most groundbreaking albums of all time.” - Wiki

“On 808s and Heartbreak, West might be making his own hip-hop version of Sea Change or In the Wee Small Hours, or countless other concept albums where the concept is sadness. But he isn’t fitting a cookie-cutter mold, he’s innovating. As a whole the album draws lines between ‘80s pop, electro, rap, current-day R&B, and other genres, while furthering the production and composition skills that have been West’s true skill from the start. Lyrically these songs contain none of the cleverness of his previous raps, but the music expresses way more than the lyrics even reach for.

The success of 808s and Heartbreak doesn’t hinge on Kanye West’s decision to not rap. This is a different style of album and he chose a different style of vocals for it. It isn’t successful just because he is channeling real-life emotions, either. He has always had a confessional aspect to his songs, even though usually he cut back against it with jokes. The album is so successful because of his winning ways with both song and album construction, and with the way he captures a particular feeling through unusual, evocative, carefully crafted music that’s both simple and complex, cold and warm, mechanical and human, melodic and harsh.” - PopMatters